Mobius Rising Chapter 1

It is early morning in the Freedom Fighters secret base camp. It had been a relatively quiet night and none of the alarms had sounded to warn them of spybots from Dr. Robotnik's laboratory. The Freedom fighters had to constantly be on guard for these sinister robots. On more than one occasion the stealthy robots had made their way past the Freedom Fighter's security system and wrecked havoc in the base. Since the last attack by the robots, security had been increased significantly and a guard was on duty at all times. Such strict security often made it difficult for new Freedom Fighters to gain access to the base since everyone who attempted to join Sonic's group tended to be suspect of working for Dr. Robotnik. As Shadow sat alone at the empty breakfast table he ponders over how fortunate that he had been that Sonic and the rest of the Freedom Fighters had been willing to accept him back into their group after the last time he betrayed them.

Shadow knew that if Sonic's group hadn't accepted him back that he would have most likely ended up dead or worse. It was no secret that Dr. Robotnik was fascinated by the power that the small black hedgehog seemed to have an endless supply of. It would be Dr. Robotnik's dream come true if he could find a way to clone an army of Shadows to be at his disposal. Shadow shifted in his seat. He had been sitting at the table for the last eight hours while everyone else slept. Shadow didn't sleep. This odd fact about Shadow disturbed most of the Freedom Fighters when they first met him but over time they had gotten used to Shadow's odd ways. As Shadow spooned another lump of sugar into his tea he hears the tell-tale sound of the rest of the Freedom Fighters waking up and sighs. Sometimes he wished that nights would last forever.

Princess Sally Acorn was one of the older members of the Knothole Freedom Fighters.  Her father was the old King that used to rule over Mobius before Dr. Robotnik took power.  King Acorn formed the Freedom Fighters not too long before he was killed by Dr. Robotnik's evil forces.  As a promise to her dying father, Sally had taken on the duty of making sure that her father's efforts to free Mobius from the clutches of Dr. Robotnik's hands would not be forgotten.  Princess Sally quickly began recruiting fellow Mobians to join her freedom fighter group and soon she had a formidable resistance team to fight against Dr. Robotnik.

Over the years the number of resistance fighters had grown and so had their power on Mobius.  Princess Sally knew that eventually they would have enough manpower and firepower to take down Dr. Robotnik once and for all.  It helped greatly that she had powerful fighters like Sonic, Tails and Knuckles on her side.  All three of them were proven fighters and had saved Mobius from certain doom on more than one occasion.  Recently they had inducted Shadow into their ranks once again.  Princess Sally did not like Shadow.  She didn't trust him.  He was far too unpredictable and had a past with Dr. Robotnik that made her very uneasy around him.  It was only at Sonic's urging that she reluctantly accepted the deeply disturbed Hedgehog back into the Freedom Fighters.  Everyone in the Freedom Fighters was aware of Shadow's shady past and, like Sally, were wary of him.  The only ones that seemed to not hold Shadow's past against him were Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Rouge.  Rouge was rather indifferent to Shadow's past since she had her own reasons for being among the Freedom Fighters... mainly to get closer to finding all of the Chaos Emeralds.

Bunnie Rabbot walked next to Princess Sally as they headed towards the kitchen.  Like Shadow, Bunnie Rabbot had a history with Robotnik as well... but hers was far less voluntary.  Bunnie Rabbot had been the victim of what Dr. Robotnik affectionately referred to as "robotization" where living flesh was transmogrified into machinery.  Bunnie Rabbot had been saved from being completely "robotisized" by Sonic but the procedure had left her somewhat less than whole.  Her entire lower body and part of her torso was cybernetic and the procedure was irreversible.  Bunnie Rabbot was depressed at first to have lost so much at the hands of Dr. Robotnik but eventually she came to appreciate the fact that she hadn't lost everything.  After being rescued by Sonic, Bunnie Rabbot quickly agreed to join the Freedom Fighters and vowed to try to prevent what happened to her from happening to any other hapless forest creature.  Unlike Princess Sally, Bunnie Rabbot tried to at least be cordial to the often sullen Shadow.  She understood that he felt more than just a little bit isolated since he had been ordered to remain within the fortress at all times.

As Bunnie and Sallie walked along, Bunnie decides that she should bring up the subject of Shadow's imprisonment once again.  As usual, Sally was not very receptive to the idea of letting Shadow roam freely.

"Well I think that if Sonic thinks that it's okay to give him a bit more freedom then maybe we should think about it." Bunnie says in her thick southern drawl.

Princess Sally frowns, " ... Sonic didn't say we should let him outside of the fortress.  Sonic knows as well as I do that if we let Shadow have too much freedom that we might be in a lot of trouble.  It's bad enough that Shadow knows the location of the Freedom Fighters headquarters... if he goes back to Dr. Robotnik we could all be doomed."

"I think you worry too much.  Surely Shadow has learned his lesson... I mean he's not stupid, Sugah."

"Yes... but he does have a history of turning on us.  I still can't believe I let Sonic talk me into letting him back into the Freedom Fighters again."  

Bunnie smiles, "That's because just like Sonic you know in your heart that Shadow isn't as evil as he appears to be."

Princess Sally stops walking and puts her hands on her hips, " That's kind of pushing it, Bunnie.    Do you really think that Shadow has changed? I mean he's just as sullen and angst ridden as he was when he joined us the last time."

"I think angst ridden is kind of his personality.  You shouldn't hold it against the guy... after all if we kicked out everyone with a personality disorder then I think the Knothole Freedom Fighters would be severely lacking in good fighters."

Princess Sally chuckles and shakes her head, "I'm going to tell Knuckles you're making fun of him again."

"Who?  Little ol' me?" Bunnie says with a wink and a laugh.

The sound of laughter echoes through the hallway as Bunnie Rabbot and Princess Sally make their way to the dining hall.  Their jovial mood immediately becomes somber as they step through the doors of the dining hall and see Shadow sitting at the far end of the table.  Shadow regards them coldly with his ominous red eyes.  His stare was enough to send a shiver down Princess Sally's spine.  Shadow grunts and spoons another teaspoon of sugar into his tea and begins to stir it as Bunnie and Princess Sally approach.

Bunnie tries to be as cordial as possible to the glowering hedgehog and her voice is extra cheery when she speaks,  "Good Mornin' Shadow.  I didn't expect you to be up so early."

Shadow shoots Bunnie an annoyed glance, "I don't sleep.  I'm always up."

"Oh yeah... I forgot." She fidgets for a moment and then smiles again, "  So have you had breakfast yet?  Sally and me were going to whip up a batch of my special pancakes."

"I hate pancakes." Shadow growls.

"Really?  Well have you ever had MY special pancakes?"

Shadow's annoyance was clear in his voice, " ... no but I can't imagine they're much different than regular pancakes."

Bunnie puts her hands on her robotic hips, "Now that's just being mean, Sugah.  Tell you what... I'll make you an extra special stack of pancakes.  That should put a smile on that sour face of yours."

Shadow raises an eyebrow.  He is about to make a snarky remark in response to Bunnie Rabbot's comment but before he can say another word, Bunnie Rabbot and Princess Sally have scooted out of the room.  Just when Shadow thinks he's safe from Bunnie Rabbot's cheery morning personality, Bunnie Rabbot pokes her head out of the kitchen and smiles at Shadow.

Bunnie still displaying the morning perkiness that won't die, "This won't take long, Sugah.  Just get your stomach ready for some super pancakes!"

Shadow grumbles something to himself about hating morning people and continues to stir his tea.

Knuckles walked down the hallway to the dining hall by himself.  He was one of the few members of the Freedom Fighters that had been allowed a private room.  Knuckles' quarters were relatively spacious but the majority of the room was taken up by the massive Master Chaos Emerald that he kept with him at all times.  Knuckles had been forced to move the Master Emerald after Dr. Robotnik, in a desperate attempt to capture the Master Emerald for his own sinister purposes, had destroyed Angel Island and everyone on it.  Knuckles was not only the keeper of the Master Chaos Emerald but he had a special connection with the giant jewel that most of the Freedom Fighters could not come close to comprehending.  Like Shadow, Knuckles connection to the Chaos force that the Emerald embodied gave him superior strength and fighting abilities.  There was also a rumor that it also made him immortal since he was the protector of the great Chaos Emerald.

Knuckles rarely left his quarters fearing that some harm may befall the great jewel while he was away.  His fears were justified, especially since his old foe Rouge the Bat had recently joined the Freedom Fighters once more.  It had been an ongoing battle to keep Rouge away from the Chaos Emerald from the start but as of late she had gotten bolder in her actions and had recently gone so far as to try to flirt her way into Knuckles' good graces.  Fortunately, the brooding red-furred echidna was not one to be beguiled by a pretty face.  Knuckles had sworn his allegiance to the Master Emerald from the time he was old enough to guard it and there was nothing more important to him than that oath.  As Knuckles turned the corner he heard the sound of leathery wings and braced himself for another nerve-wracking encounter with his voluptuous nemesis.  Rouge lands gracefully in front of Knuckles blocking his path.  

Knuckles lets out a low growl, "Move."

Rouge folds her gloved arms and bats her eyes seductively at Knuckles, "Now is that any way to talk to a lady, Knuckles?"

Knuckles' head quills bristle in annoyance, "No.  But you're no lady."

"Well I can't deny that.  So you finally decided to come out of your room, hmn?"

Knuckles gives Rouge a suspicious look, "... have you been waiting out here for me to come out?  That's a new low even for you."

"I wasn't waiting for you to come out.  I was just being observant."

Knuckles bares his teeth in an angry growl, "Stop spying on me!  And you'd better stay away from the Chaos Emerald!"  

"You keep talking to me like that and I'm going to get my feelings hurt, Knuckles."

Knuckles' eyes glint dangerously, "I'll hurt more than that if I find out you've been in my room."

Rouge rolls eyes, "Oh calm yourself.  If you must know I was just on my way to breakfast when I saw you come out of your room.  My room isn't all that far from yours after all.  I have to pass your room to get to the dining hall"

Knuckles snorts in disbelief, "... well isn't that convenient..."

"I'll say.  So... would you care to accompany me to breakfast?"

"Whatever.  I was going to breakfast anyway... "

Rouge slips her slender arm around Knuckles' arm and pulls him close to her side, "Then I guess that's a yes"

Knuckles groans in annoyance as Rouge practically drags him down the hallway.  Knuckles doesn't struggle very much because he figures as long as Rouge is with him, he doesn't have to worry about her stealing the Chaos Emerald.

Shadow looks up from his tea once more as the door on the opposite side of the room opens and he sees Knuckles and Rouge walk in.  Knuckles was one of the few members of the Freedom Fighters that didn't irritate Shadow to the point of madness with his mere presence.  It was probably because Knuckles wasn't constantly on a mission to try to turn him into a dark furred version of Sonic.  Upon seeing Shadow sitting at the table, Rouge releases Knuckles arm and slinks her way across the room towards Shadow.  Shadow narrows his eyes at Rouge.  He didn't trust the seductive bat any more than Knuckles did.

Rouge slides onto the table next to Shadow and rustles his head quills with her fingers, "Good morning, Shadow.  I see that you're in your usual good spirits"

Shadow swats Rouge's hand away, "I thought bats were nocturnal.  Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

"And miss talking to you and Knuckles?  I wouldn't dream of it.  So what's the occasion, Shadow?  You don't usually stick around for breakfast."

Shadow scowls darkly and stirs his tea once more, "It's not very pleasant being forced to share a room with Sonic... he runs in his sleep.  I can't think straight with all that incessant thumping.  I usually come out here for some peace and quiet but unfortunately I lost track of time."

Knuckles snorts in amusement, "Runs in his sleep?  I can see that.  I wonder if he's ever flung himself out of bed with his night running?"

Shadow did not see the humor in the situation and answers Knuckles flatly, "Yes."

Knuckles grins widely, "That's funny as hell.  You have so got to sneak a video camera into his room and tape this."

Shadow looks down at his tea, "I'm glad my pain amuses you."

Knuckles notices that Shadow wasn't in the mood for joking as usual and quickly sobers up.  He clears his throat, " Hey, Shadow, man, I don't mean it like that.  Hey if you want you could room with me for a bit.  As far as I know I don't punch in my sleep or do anything else weird."

Shadow looks away.  His gloved hands were grasping his teacup so hard that the fragile dish threatened to shatter in his powerful hands, "I doubt if Princess Sally would agree to such an arrangement.  After all Sonic has been declared my official keeper. I doubt if she would trust anyone else to keep me in line."

Rouge tilts her head slightly, "I didn't realize the princess had you on such a tight leash, Shadow."

Shadow scoots his chair over a little.  Rouge was infringing on his personal space once more, "It was one of the conditions of me being allowed back into the Freedom Fighters... I have to remain under Sonic's constant supervision."

Rouge smiles knowingly, "Well it's not constant supervision... The blue wonder has to sleep sometimes.  Unless you've managed to rub off your peculiar brand of insomnia on him."

Shadow frowns and shoots Rouge a dark glance, "You know what I mean."

The door to the dining room opens again and Tails walks in with a large bowl of cereal.  He scoots over to the other side of the table and sits next to Shadow.  Shadow raises an eyebrow as Tails begins to noisily eat his cereal.  

Rouge smiles at Tails, "Good morning, Miles."

Shadow is slightly confused by Rouge using Tails' real name.  He had never heard the tiny fox referred to by anything other than Tails.  Shadow had assumed that Tails' parents had just had a twisted sense of humor when naming him.  Tails doesn't seem surprised at all to be referred to by his real name.  Rouge was one of the few Freedom Fighters who felt compelled to call him by his true name.  He assumed it was because she thought that the name Tails was a bit distasteful because it called attention to his deformity.  Cheery as always, Tails curls his twin tails around him as he eats.

Tails has a mouth full of cereal.  A few flecks fly out when he speaks and stick to Shadow's fur, "Rouge? When did you get back in town?"

Rouge stretches with a mock yawn, "I've been back for a few days now.  I've just been keeping a low profile."

Knuckles grumbles under his breath, "Not low enough..."

Rouge blows Knuckles a kiss and smiles.  Knuckles hrumphs and folds his arms.

Tails is completely oblivious to the tension at the table.  He spoons another spoonful of cereal into his mouth, "It's good to have you back.  We could always use another flier around here."

Rouge smiles, "Well I'm glad that someone around here appreciates me."

Rouge slides off the table and walks over to stand between Tails and Shadow, "So, sweetie why are you eating cereal?  From the smell of things, Bunnie is whipping up a batch of her oh so special pancakes."

Tails burps, "Pancakes give me gas... so I'm just sticking to cereal."

Rouge winces her nose at Tails' statement, "Oh... lovely."

As Shadow wiped some of the cereal-caked spittle from his face, the entire room heard the distant rumbling that usually was a precursor to Sonic's arrival.  Since Sonic traveled faster than the speed of sound, the only thing that most people would see was a streak of blue and the ensuing sonic boom that Sonic usually left in his wake.  Before Rouge could say another word, Sonic sped into the room with his usual flair and skidded to a stop before the small group.

Sonic salutes the room with a smile,  "Good morning, everyone!  Sorry I'm late.  I decided to take a quick jog around the fortress before stopping for breakfast."

Shadow stands and begins to walk out of the dining room without a word to Sonic or anyone else.  The dour, dark-furred hedgehog tried to limit his time with Sonic to as short a time as possible.  Whenever Sonic entered the room, Shadow usually saw it as his cue to leave.

With a mischievous grin, Sonic zips in front of Shadow blocking his way, "And where do you think you're going, Shadow?  You always skip out on breakfast... maybe you could try to be a bit social for once."

Shadow snarls despite himself and recoils slightly, "I'd rather not.  I've had all the socialization that I can stand for today."

Shadow attempts to side step around Sonic but Sonic is too fast for him and he blocks Shadow's exit once more, "I insist."

Shadow's eyes glow a sinister red.  He really hated his blue doppelganger.  Knuckles could sense that a fight was getting ready to break out between the two hedgehogs once more and sighs.  He knew that he would be forced to break up the fight if fight ensued so he decided to intervene before it was too late.  

With a sigh of annoyance, Knuckles stands and shoves his way between the two hedgehogs, "Look, Sonic... just let him go.  There's no need to turn this morning into a battle... I'm sure Bunnie won't appreciate it if you cause her dining room to get destroyed again."

Sonic looks a bit hurt at the accusation, "... that was so not my fault."

Knuckles rolls eyes, "Yeah... but this time it will be."

Sonic frowns at Shadow and then steps aside and lets the sullen black hedgehog ease past him.  Once Shadow is out of earshot, Sonic speaks again,  "It's been almost three weeks since we let him back and he's still acting like we're the enemy."

"He's cool with me... I think it's just everyone else he has a problem with", Knuckles says with a shrug.  

Sonic frowns,  "Well he needs to get over it.  It was hard enough convincing Princess Sally that he's worth taking a risk on without him behaving like that."

Rouge walks over to where Knuckles and Sonic were standing, "Well how would you behave, Sonic?  Honestly... for all practical purposes he's being treated like a prisoner here.  I know he's done some bad things in the past but I think maybe you and Sally have gone a bit far with how strict you're being with him now that he's back."

Knuckles nods,  "... She does have a point.  I don't think I'd be too friendly either if I was assigned a keeper..."

Sonic raises an eyebrow,  " I'm not his keeper."

"He called you his keeper", Rouge quips.

Sonic sighs and holds up his hands, "Listen... Princess Sally just told me I had to keep an eye on him.  She thinks he's still a security risk."

Rouge folds her arms over her ample bosom, "And how does she think that you're going to lessen that risk?  Did you forget he can teleport?"

"That's part of the conditions of him staying here... he can't use his Chaos Control powers at all." Sonic says and also folds his arms.

Both Knuckles and Rouge look a bit surprised at Sonic's words.  Sonic frowns at Knuckles, "Why do you look surprised?  I thought you knew."

Knuckles scratches his head, "Well kind of.  I knew that he wasn't allowed outside the fortress but I didn't know he couldn't use his powers at all."

Sonic begins to rock on his heels.  He didn't like standing still too long, "He has no need to use his powers here... where would he go in this fortress where he would need Chaos blast or Chaos control?  It's best to just ban the use of either."

Rouge gets a sarcastic look on her face, "Do you really think you can stop him from using either of those?"

Sonic winks at Rouge,  "I've gotten a pretty good grasp on Chaos Control myself lately.  I think he knows this and he's not going to risk being exiled from the last place on Mobius that will have him.  I know he's been obeying the rules because I would be able to sense if he used his powers."

Rouge was not too keen on being on the receiving end of being flirted with and rolls her eyes again,  "I see.  Well I still feel bad for him.  You have to give him more than three weeks to adjust to his new life... especially when everyone around here is treating him with more suspicion than we would Dr. Robotnik himself."

Rouge walks past Sonic and heads towards the door.  

Sonic turns, "Hey... where are you going?"

Rouge stops in the doorway and turns slightly, "I'm going to go keep Shadow company.  He looks like he could use someone to talk to."

Knuckles balks at the idea, "Um... he kind of looked like he wanted to be left alone.  I wouldn't bug him if I were you."

"Well I'll never know if I don't try... now will I?"  Rouge narrows eyes seductively,  "Surely you're not jealous that I'm paying Shadow some attention are you, Knuckles?  That shade of green so does not go with red."

Knuckles' face goes a brighter shade of red than usual at Rouge's words.  He then scowls angrily and his head quills stick straight out with fury, " What the hell is that supposed to mean?!  Why would I be jealous?!"

Rouge turns on her heels and walks out laughing.  Sonic gives Knuckles a side look, " ... dude you have got to get control over that anger of yours.  It's no big deal if you're jealous... Rouge is kind of cute."

Knuckles is trembling with anger now, "Damn it...that stupid bat!  I'm not jealous!"

Sonic grins, "Surrrrrrrrre you're not.  I totally believe you.  If you weren't jealous why would you get so defensive..."

Sonic then zips out of range of Knuckles' fists before Knuckles has a chance to club him to death.  After getting a safe distance away from Knuckles, Sonic calls out to him, still laughing at how angry he had managed to make the echidna, "Your secret is safe with me, Knuckles!"

Knuckles stomps the floor hard enough to crack it, "Arrrgh!  Damnit I need to smash something now!"

Knuckles takes a deep breath and attempts to calm himself as Bunnie Rabbot and Princess Sally walk into the dining room with two huge plates of pancakes.  Bunnie notices immediately that Shadow is gone.  

Bunnie sets the plate of pancakes down and looks around, "Where's Shadow?  I made this stack just for him."

Sonic zips across the room and takes Shadow's seat.  He then pulls the huge stack of pancakes over in front of him, "He's being anti-social again.  I'll take those!"

Shadow and Sonic both had extremely high metabolisms and had to eat enormous quantities to keep themselves from burning out.  Shadow conserved his energy through the use of his hover skates... but Sonic had no such luxury.  He had to consume large amounts of food at every meal or stop running altogether.

As Sonic began to devour the pancakes at a speed that was less than decent, Bunnie Rabbot places her hands on her hips and pouts, "Well that's just rude... I wonder why he left?"

Knuckles sits down to a modest stack of pancakes and begins to eat them as daintily as he could with a knife and fork, "Ask the blue wonder over there."

Bunnie turns her frown to Sonic.  Her hands were still on her large robotic hips, "Well, Sonic?  What did you do, now?"

Sonic finishes his stack of pancakes and burps, "I didn't do anything.  As soon as I showed up he got up to leave.  I invited him to stay and he responded by being Shadow.  You know how he gets all weird sometimes."

Bunnie Rabbot sighs and rolls her eyes.  She knew there was more to the story but she really didn't feel like hearing yet another thrilling synopsis by Sonic once more.  Bunnie Rabbot sits next to Princess Sally and begins to pour syrup on her modest stack of pancakes.  

Princess Sally sips from her glass of orange juice and then looks over at Sonic, "Just how upset was he when he left, Sonic?"

Sonic shrugs.  Tails speaks up, "He looked more annoyed than mad... but I think Rouge has gone to try to cheer him up."

Princess Sally slaps her forehead, "Oh great.  The most tactless of us all has gone to cheer up the furry nuclear warhead..."

Tails slurps the last of his cereal out of his bowl, "I dunno.  She seemed pretty confident."

Sonic dismisses Sally's concerns with a wave of his hand,  "Bah. She won't even get into the room.  Only me and Shadow have a key and I don't think any amount of Rouge's sweet talk will get him to open it for her.  I think he hates her almost as much as he hates me."

Knuckles dabs at his mouth with his napkin, "I wouldn't sell yourself short on that, Sonic."